Rising Shards

Stella stared at the email that had popped into her inbox. Or rather, continued to stare at it, because it had popped into her inbox an hour and fifty minutes earlier.

“RE: RISING SHARDS APPLICATION”

It took a good twenty minutes to work up the nerve to open it. Then, once she decided she would open it, she decided to order food so she’d have something to either celebrate her victory with or something to wallow in the despair of.

“Congratulations! You have been selected to schedule an interview for the LIBRARIAN position at RISING SHARDS — Cani Focused High School. Please follow the link and select a time…”

Stella had a gut feeling in the days prior that she’d just get rejected outright and have to find another job in Sky Clay so she could move out of the city to be closer to Zeta, so it took a few more moments to process.

OK, this is really happening. Provided I don’t screw up the interview.

This was a major step for her. She had done a bit of looking for new apartments in the much more affordable suburb of Litus Empirica but hadn’t found anything concrete yet.

Oh my god, if I get this, I could be working with—

Her phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. It was Zeta. Stella answered right away.

“Hi Zeta,” Stella said. “How are things?”

Zeta paused before responding, which after her incident with Ovie put an instant knot in Stella’s stomach.

“Hey, Stella…” Zeta said, sounding gloomy.

“What’s up? You OK?” Stella asked.

“I’m not down, just—”

“Are you in trouble? Not another fight, right?”

“No.”

“Did you get expelled or something?”

“No!” Zeta said. “I just…I have some news…”

More knots in her stomach. Stella tried to ground herself and not let her trains of thought take her to an anxious place unnecessarily.

“Oh god, you’re not pregnant or something are you?”

Keyword: tried.

“What? No!” Zeta said.

Seriously, ground yourself. Don’t make her more worried. Stella took a deep breath.

“Alright, now that I’ve covered the really out-there scenarios, whatever you have to tell me won’t be that bad. Right?”

Another pause. Stella decided that saying any more might make things worse, and to just let Zeta talk. When she finally spoke again, she blurted it all out so quickly it took Stella a few seconds to process it.

“I asked Oka out! And…she said yes! And we’re dating now!”

Once that info was successfully processed, Stella resisted the urge to let a joyful yelp out, because she was still Zeta’s big sister and she needed to maintain a bit of authority.

“About freaking time.” Stella said. “Congratulations!”

“Thank you,” Zeta sighed. “I don’t know why I was worried you’d be mad or something.”

“Mad? Hell no!” Stella said. “I’m so glad, Oka’s so much better than Jeans. Now that you’ve been safely away from her for a while, I gotta say I always hated her. Something about her just grinded my gears. And then it turned out she was a huge jerk to you so. Big sister sense was right. And I’ve never had that vibe about Oka.”

“Thanks, Stella.” Zeta said.

“And Oka’s in theater so I like her even more!” Stella said. "Oh my god, we should all go to a play together."

"Only if you promise not to shush me too much like you usually do," Zeta said.

"That's because you talk during the best parts!" Stella said. The fast food in front of her reminded her of something. “Oh, we have to have the dinner then, too.”

“Huh?” Zeta asked.

“Family tradition!” Stella said. "Us Faleurs always meet with a family member’s new romantic partner for a big dinner to celebrate.”

“That’s really a family tradition?”

“Well, a family tradition I skipped for Jeans because I hated that vile turd.”

“You really didn’t like her that much?” Zeta giggled.

“One of the first days she came over, you left the room for a second, and she just kinda turned her nose up to me and talked about how bad the food I was cooking smelled. Well, guess who didn’t get anything I ever cooked?”

“Is that why you always ordered takeout when Jeans was over?”

“Yup. But I still would for Oka if she likes takeout, from the good places not the cheap places like I did for Jeans.”

“She liked the Big Boy from Ultra Taco. I think.” Zeta said. “But you were there for that, so…”

“Right, this time I won’t be spying at least.” Stella said. “Oh, Zeta…”

“What? Are you suddenly mad about me and Oka? Did something go wrong just now?"

“No, not that…” Stella said. She winced. She had thought about not telling Zeta at all about the interview, but if she got the job without telling her it’d probably make her more upset than any potential worrying her little sister would surely do about all the big life changes. “I have some news for you too…”

“You didn’t get expelled, did you?” Zeta asked. “Like, from work? Or…the college? Which I guess would be work.”

“No, just.” Stella decided that if Zeta could tell her about her new girlfriend, Stella could talk about her news. “I applied for a job. At Rising Shards.”

“Oh,” Zeta said. Not sounding upset or even worried. Just kinda neutral, which was a win for Stella. “Really? At the library? That one old librarian did just retire…”

“Yeah, I just heard today that I have an interview.”

“That’s great! Congratulations to you, too!” Zeta said. “If you get it, don’t embarrass me all the time though.”

There was a pause as Zeta hmmm’d for a few seconds, which she always did when she had to ponder something over the phone.

“So are you…gonna stay in LE and commute?” She asked.

Change was always scary for Stella’s little sister, and she could hear it a bit in her voice. Their apartment was about the only home Zeta had ever known. So this news might go worse than the job news.

“I was thinking of moving to Sky Clay.” Stella said.

“Oh, OK,” Zeta said. She was still somewhat neutral sounding, which was already more receptive than Stella expected. “Hmmm…hey, then if I get homesick and miss you or something, I could like walk over and see you. Then you wouldn’t have to drive an hour or whatever.”

“Yes!” Stella said. “And we can always visit LE whenever.”

“True, true.” Zeta said. “I think you’ll like little city life. It’s a lot less busy here.”

“Oh, yeah?” Stella said.

"I haven't been in Sky Clay much away from the school but it's just kinda cozier, you know?" Zeta said. “Oh, make sure it’s within walking distance from the school.”

"It would be nice to not have to drive to work." Stella said.

"That and then you don't need to pick me up if I want to come home!"

Stella laughed. "Well, I'll keep you posted on that."

“OK, I'm gonna go get dinner then," Zeta said. 

"Alright, talk to you soon Zeta," Stella said.

"Bye Stella, I’ll let Oka know about the other dinner thing too," Zeta said. "Good luck on the job!"

"Thanks," Stella said. "Congrats on Oka! Tell her I'm very pleased."

"I will," Zeta said.

Stella sighed. That all went a lot better than she'd worried it would. And now Zeta finally had a girlfriend that wasn't an abusive freak, too. Feeling a lot less burdened, Stella clicked into the email and scheduled the soonest interview time she could.